Robert (Bob) Fishman served for 23 years as founding Executive Director of JFACT, the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut. He retired in 2017 and served as part-time Executive Director of CIRC, the CT Immigrant and Refugee Coalition. Prior  to serving in his position with JFACT, he served as the Director of Jewish Community Relations at the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation. Working in the field of interfaith and interethnic relations, Bob organized the statewide Black/Jewish Coalition of Conscience with the late CT Treasurer, Henry Parker, in 1965. Bob was appointed as one of the founding commissioners of the state’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission in 1986.

A proud native of Washington, D.C., Bob holds a BA from the University of Maryland and Masters degrees from the Univ. of Maryland School of Social Work in community organization and Baltimore Hebrew University in Modern Jewish History.

Bob is married to artist Susan Hoffman Fishman for 50 years and they have 2 sons,  Ben in Washington , D.C. and Gabriel in Cambridge, Mass. He and Susan have an 8 year old granddaughter in D.C. Mira Belle Fishman. He is a regular walker with the Beth El Men's Club Reservoir walking group and enjoys theater, movies, concerts, swimming, watching Baseball and Basketball, and reading about Israel, Jewish History, and Global Antisemitism. Bob states his heroes are: Elie Wiesel, Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Stanley Kessler, Natan Sharansky, Deborah Lipstadt, and David Ben Gurion. He is an avid member of the Rabbi Philip Lazowski fan club.